


The Salty Desert Air

by CLeighWrites



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abuse Not Specific, Angry poseidon, Case Fic, Creature Reader, F/M, Kidnapping, Mentions of the Kraken, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Sexual Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 11:37:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20506343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CLeighWrites/pseuds/CLeighWrites
Summary: Sam and Dean investigate the drownings of several men in a small Nevada town; they are not prepared for what they find.





	The Salty Desert Air

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for (amanda-teaches on Tumblr) Amanda's SPNClue Challenge. My prompts were a **witch** in the **abandoned warehouse** with a **trident**.

BFE, Nevada

“When you say ‘drowned’?” Dean asked for clarification.

“I mean his lungs were full of salt water; he drowned,” the M.E. confirmed. 

“So he drowned in the ocean… in his third floor apartment, on the living room floor?” Sam reiterated. 

“How many ways do I gotta break this down for you fellas?”

Dean was exhausted and could not keep the snark out of his tone. “Forgive us if we’re finding it hard to believe that a man drowned in his living room with not so much as a glass of water on his coffee table.”

“Dean,” Sam tried to soothe him, it didn’t work and Dean rolled his eyes and turned to walk out into the hallway. “Sorry about that, we’ve had a long few days. He just needs to eat something. Thank you for your time.” 

Once they made it outside, Dean rounded on Sam. “Don’t apologize for me.”

“Dean, you’ve been really snippy lately. The guy’s just doing his job.”

“Yeah, well, whatever. Get in, let’s go. I need fuel.”

Sam mumbled something under his breath that sounded like, ‘Tell me about it’ then opened the door and folded himself into the passenger seat. Dean let it slide, too hot and hungry to tell him to shut up. Dean turned the key and smiled to himself as Baby roared to life. _Harvester of Sorrow_ was on, which perfectly matched his mood, so he cranked it up and ignored Sam’s full-body eye-roll. 

In their corner booth at the nearest dive bar they could find, Sam and Dean went over all the clues they had found on the scene. This was the third dry-land drowning in town and there was the distinct smell of brine and pine, which struck both of them as very strange. Aside from that, the victims were all men in their thirties who lived alone and none of them had ever been to a beach. 

“We’re obviously dealing with a **witch**,” Dean decided.

Sam shook his head. “We didn’t see any talismans or hex bags anywhere in any of the vics places. As much as it feels like a witch, I really don’t think that’s what we’re dealing with here.”

“What else could it be? Grown men drowning in saltwater in the middle of the fucking desert!”

“I don’t know Dean, that’s why we have to keep looking. I just know that smell has to mean something. It’s not like there’s a ton of pine trees around here, and there were no air fresheners, either.” He adds before Dean could suggest it. He stops and thinks, brows furrowing with the effort. “There’s got to be something we’re missing.” Sam stopped talking again as their waitress returned.

“Thank, God!” Dean exclaimed as he grabbed his burger and took an enormous bite.

Sam just shook his head and started cutting up the grilled chicken breast that came with his salad. They ate in silence, still mulling over all of the evidence. Dean could not figure out how people would be drowning on dry land, in saltwater no less, if it weren’t witches. They must have missed something. 

Dean swallowed the last of his burger, then suggested, “We should go get a better look at that body, maybe we can catch something that the M.E. missed.”

Sam nodded his agreement. “That’s really all we’ve got to go with right now. We’ve already swept their houses.” 

Dean brushed whatever crumbs might have been on his hands off by slapping and rubbing them together, invigorated with having a full belly and a next step. “Alright, let's head back over to the morgue.” 

****

Their inspection of the body resulted in them finding a **trident** mark on the back of the most recent victim’s neck. Sam dug further into the three men’s lives and found out that they were all connected to each other through dealings with a local millionaire, Marcus Shepherd, that had built a desert mansion just outside of town. Dean wasn’t sure why someone would want to build a mansion in the middle of the desert, but he wasn’t in any position to judge someone when he lived most of his life in a ‘67 Impala. 

When they went to interrogate Marcus, they heard a crash somewhere inside. By the time they got in through a patio door and made it into the spacious, ornate living room, he was dead laying in a puddle on the floor, a lamp on the side table was smashed on the floor, and there was the distinct smell of brine and pine in the air. 

“Smell that,” Sam asked. 

“Yeah, saltwater and pine trees,” Dean responded. 

“Just like the others. They must have done something to piss someone powerful off.”

Dean nodded and huffed, “I still say it’s a witch.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Ok, burgers and a six-pack on me if you find a hex bag or talisman of any kind.”

Dean grinned at the prospect of food and beer, even if all their money was pooled together. “You’re on!”

As hard as Dean tried, there was no evidence of witchcraft in the house, let alone in the living room where he died. Dean had to give it to Marcus though, the dude had great taste in music and the kitchen was enviable. Once Dean was sure he’d checked everywhere he reluctantly went in search of his brother and found him in what looked like Marcus’ office. 

After some extensive digging around, Sam found blueprints for a very large tank; if Dean had to guess, it was a saltwater tank. Sam figured the specs for the tank had it located in a sublevel of the main house. Dean waited while Sam looked over some more papers and then followed him through the house where they got into an elevator and made their way down. 

Guns drawn, they walked down a narrow hallway that opened up into a surprisingly massive room. If Dean didn’t know better, he’d have thought they were in an airplane hangar. The room was two stories tall, at least, and had doorways and a walkway around the second level, with the middle of the room wide open. There were overseas shipping crates spread out all over the room; stuffing strewn around with artworks and artifacts laid out for viewing. Along the far wall there was a truck; not just any truck, a truck with a massive tank in the back. 

“Dean,” Sam nodded for him to move to the front of the truck while he took the rear. 

Weapon at the ready, Dean kept his eyes peeled for anyone, or anything, to pop out from behind a crate or the truck. He met Sam around the back of the truck without incident. On closer inspection, the tank was full of what looked like seaweed and other stuff Dean figured one would find in the ocean. The water was a deep greenish-blue and was quite murky. 

Sam tilted his head like he’d seen something, then leaned in to get a closer look. Dean followed his line of vision and they both jumped back when a woman appeared out of the turbid depths. Her hair was long and wild, whipping around in the swirling water as she moved. She was gorgeous, even with the scales along her temples and her lips being an odd shade of green. Her eyes were wide and sad, and a brighter shade of Dean’s seafoam green. Why was she in the tank though?

She moved away from the side of the tank and Dean saw a flash of a blue-green tail. They were rescuing an honest to Chuck mermaid. “Sammy, did you see-”

“Yeah,” Sam answered with reverence. 

“Is that a-”

“Yeah, Dean. I think it is. But why-”

Before Sam could finish voicing his question, water sloshed out of the top of the tank and a strange feminine voice drifted down to them. “You’re not the men that usually come. Who are you?” They both looked up, and could just make out the woman’s, or merlady’s, head at the back end top corner of the glass cage.

Sam spoke first, “My name is Sam, this is my brother Dean. We’re here because men have been drowning in saltwater on dry-land.” 

“You think I had something to do with that?”

Sam shook his head, but Dean still had his gun poised. “Did you?”

“Dean.”

“What, Sam? We’ve got four dead guys drowned in saltwater in the middle of the desert and a freakin’ mermaid trapped in some rich dude’s basement. You telling me she’s got nothing to do with this?”

Sam pressed his lips into a thin line, then turned back toward the tank. “You don’t have magical powers by any chance do you?”

She laughed and Dean’s stomach dropped. “No, I don’t.”

Dean didn’t quite trust the feeling he was getting from her, but he put his gun in his waistband as he asked, “You sure about that?”

“Quite. I’m in the king’s court. He’s probably been looking for me.” She looked distressed, then added, “He’s very powerful and has a notorious temper.”

“The king? Like, Neptune?” Sam asked. “That would explain the trident marks,” he reiterated to Dean. 

“Well, Poseidon, yes. I’ll never understand where the Roman’s obsession with astrology came from.” 

Dean was in shock. “Poseidon, the Greek god is killing these men to get you back?”

“It seems so.”

“You don’t look too happy about being rescued.”

She took a deep breath. “Poseidon can be very… abusive, to put it kindly.”

Sam and Dean both straightened up at her implication. Dean was the first to recover. “What can we do to help?”

“You would help me?”

Dean put on his most confident smirk. “It’s sort of what we do. What’s your name?” 

“Y/N,” she answered, but was still wary of them. 

“Look, Y/N,” Sam started, “if there’s something we can do to help, we will. I can only imagine what being in the king’s court is like.” Sam was laying the sympathy on thick, like he knew exactly what she had gone through. 

Dean wracked his brain for information on the sea god but came up with very little other than a trident and the Kraken. “Is he here? Or does his reach extend to the desert?”

“He is close by. I can feel his energy.” 

Dean turned to his brother, eyebrows raised. “Do we know how to kill a Greek god?”

“With Calliope, we had a blessed stake. Where would we get one out here? And she was just a muse, Poseidon is a major god. I don’t even think we can kill him.”

“You can’t.” Y/N confirmed. “He rules the entire sea, no one knows what would happen if he weren’t there to oversee everything. The Kraken alone would cause mass destruction.” She seemed genuinely concerned. “Just look what happened to Atlantis.” 

Dean balked, “Atlantis, as in the lost city of?”

“It’s not lost, the Kraken sank it; none survived.”

“And that was all this dick-bag Poseidon’s fault? You’re not really helping his case here, sweetheart.”

“You can’t kill him, but there may be another way.” Dean could tell by her tone that she wasn’t a big fan of this other way. 

Dean shook his head in exasperation and motioned for her to continue. “That would be…?” She ducked into the water again. “Great. We might be able to save the mermaid and protect her against the god of the damn ocean. What are we doing, Sam?”

“Our job, Dean. You clearly don’t know your Greek mythology. Poseidon was, or is, not a very nice guy. He’s got one hell of a temper, and he was very abusive toward women. Remember Medusa?”

“Snakes for hair, turns guys to stone, yeah.”

“That was more of a blessing from Athena, than a curse. It was because she was raped by Poseidon in her temple. So many people think it was because she just had sex there and disrespected her, but that’s not what happened.” Sam was like an encyclopedia for things-most-people-didn’t-know. 

“Yes, that’s right. How did you know?” Y/N was back, and actually sitting on the edge of the tank now, there must be an opening because it had looked enclosed. That would mean that she’d have her tail in the tank, Dean figured she must be really strong if she dead-lifted herself out of that tank. 

“I read a lot,” Sam said lamely. 

“So, this other way of saving you?” Dean prompted.

“Yes, I’m afraid it will not be easy.” 

“Nothing ever is, sweetheart. Just tell us what we need to do.”

“It can only be one of you.” She stopped herself and looked around. “This would be much better if I weren’t way up here.” 

Sam walked around to the backside of the truck, while Dean searched for a ladder. “Can you even be-” 

“Out of the water?” Y/N asked from directly behind him.

Dean jumped back and instinctively reached for his gun. Y/N’s eyes went wide and she stumbled backward, Dean caught her before she hit her head on the edge of the tank she had just gotten out of. “Wha- how did you-?”

Y/N smiled up at him and placed her hand on the side of his face. Dean was instantly filled with a sense of calm and euphoria. Sam must have heard the commotion. He came around the truck and to an abrupt halt when he saw Dean holding Y/N in his arms with her hand on his face. 

“Dean!” Sam yelled, but Dean couldn’t bring his eyes away from Y/N. 

He was vaguely aware that Sam had drawn his gun, and moved so that he stood between his armed brother and the sea-woman in his arms. She was still greenish-blue tinted and slightly scaly, but she was on human legs. She was indeed magic, and Dean would do whatever he needed to in order to keep her safe. 

“Dean,” Sam’s voice was laced with concern, but he couldn’t figure out why.

“Yeah, Sammy.” Dean set Y/N down on her own feet and took her hand in his before turning to face his brother.

Sam was looking over his shoulder at Y/N when he asked, “What did you do to him?”

Y/N straightened herself, “Nothing. I simply activated a link we already shared.”

“What does that even mean?” Sam still had his gun positioned to shoot, although he didn’t have it trained on Dean. 

“She’s mine, Sammy. I’m going to keep her safe,” Dean answered for her. 

“What did you do to him?” Sam repeated.

“Sam, your brother is fine. I didn’t do anything to him. When merfolk touch a human they have a connection with, they form a bond. It’s unbreakable and insurmountable. It changes us both, he’s the reason I was able to to do this.” She shook a foot out, indicating her new legs. 

Sam still didn’t lower his weapon. “So, I’m just supposed to believe that you and my brother are like some star-crossed soulmates, like _Splash_? Now you can suddenly grow legs and my brother’s just a love zombie?”

“If that’s the easiest way for you to understand it, then yes. Although I don’t know what Splash is.” She squeezed Dean’s hand and he felt a wave of reassurance swim through him. 

“Daryl Hannah,” Dean supplied, then pursed his lips and squinted at Sam. “I’m good, Sam. This situation does not call for a weapon, lower your gun.” Sam looked at him like he needed saving, while Dean felt like he had already been saved. “I swear, Sam. I’ve never felt like this before. I know exactly what we need to do.”

****

The entire drive back into town Dean tried to explain to Sam what it had felt like when she touched him. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before in his life. It had felt like a headrush and a zen moment all at the same time; like a piece he never knew was missing slid into place and he was suddenly whole. 

Y/N could sense Poseidon’s presence, and directed them through town and ultimately to an **abandoned warehouse**. Dean made Sam swear to let him do all the talking when they went in. The entire building was thick with the scent of the sea and pine, it was dizzying. He wondered how no one seemed to notice the pungent smell. 

“Y/N.” A booming voice sounded from a dark corner of the warehouse. “I was beginning to think you were lost from me forever.”

“I may be still, sire.” Y/N responded quietly from Dean’s side. Her hand wrapped tightly around Dean’s arm. 

“Is that so?” Dean could only presume that the man’s voice belonged to Poseidon. “And who is this mortal?”

Dean took in a deep breath, “Name’s Dean Winchester, I’m with Y/N.” It sounded lame once he said it out loud.

“He’s my match, sire.”

“Winchester… the same Winchester that killed Calliope?”

“Actually, that was me,” Sam spoke up from behind them. “We’ve come to inform you of Dean and Y/N’s bond.”

“Have you? And you think that I will permit her to leave my court because some _brotós_ has a bond with her?”

“Sire-” Y/N started.

“ENOUGH!” Poseidon thundered. 

The air crackled, and Dean felt the pressure in the building drop like it was about to storm. He turned to Sam and quietly asked, “I thought he was the sea-god, he can’t make it storm inside, can he?”

Y/N answered, “Never wondered how hurricanes got started in the middle of the ocean?” Dean wrapped a protective arm around Y/N’s shoulders and held her close. “Sire, it’s the law.”

She sounded so small but still fierce as the tempest raged around them. He felt proud for her; he couldn’t imagine how hard this was for her to go through. There were a few terrifying seconds when the storm swelled, then it dissipated to a fine mist settling over the ground. A man, slightly taller than Sam, but twice as built, came into the light. He had long black curly hair, with a matching beard and was carrying a long silver trident. He was in a cream-colored flowing button-down shirt and dark denim jeans with brown sandals on his feet. 

“You sure kept up with the times,” Dean jibed, unsure of what else to say. 

Y/N squeezed his arm tighter and he could feel her moving to hide further behind him. Dean widened his stance and felt, more than saw, Sam flank Y/N’s other side. No matter how weird Sam thought this whole thing was, Dean knew he could always count on him to have his back. 

Poseidon spread his arms wide and gestured to his outfit. “I rather like these modern clothes. They’re much more practical than the Greeks’ and Romans’ were.”

“Right,” Dean deadpanned. “Anyway, we’d hate to keep you, so we’ll just be on our way with Y/N here. Sorry you wasted the trip inland.”

“You really thought it would be that easy?” Poseidon took another step toward them. “You actually thought that you _brotós*_ could steal my favourite _kyría*_ and escape me?”

Dean leaned over Y/N’s head to whisper as Sam. “What did he just call us?”

Sam’s lips twitched in annoyance, but he didn’t offer a translation. Y/N straightened her back and leveled her gaze on the significantly bigger man. 

“They did not steal me. I left, I was caught by these men that you have killed, and they rescued me. Dean is my match, and I have already activated our link. We are bound, sire.” Y/N voice broke on the last word and Dean had to resist the urge to tuck her in behind him. 

Poseidon took the last few steps needed to close the distance between them and Y/N screamed as he placed his hand on Dean’s head. There was a flash of blinding light, and Dean fell to the floor. 

****

Y/N had never been so terrified in all her life. Not when Poseidon had forced himself into her chambers and took her. Not when she had finally had enough and decided to leave the palace. Not even when the fisherman had found her trying to get out of their net. 

When Poseidon had placed his hand on Dean, she had feared for his life. She had had no idea that their bond was even more powerful than Poseidon himself. There was a flash of light and Dean had fallen, she had thought for sure that he was dead, but she didn’t feel a strain on their bond. She turned to face the sea-god and saw him staring wide-eyed at her. 

“How?” Poseidon had whispered, just before he disappeared into a fine mist of seawater. 

Y/N and Sam went to Dean’s side as soon as the threat was over. Y/N cradled his head in her lap, and Sam checked him for a pulse. He had let out a relieved sigh when he found that his brother was still alive. They worked together to carry the unconscious Dean back to the car and laid him over the back seat, leaving the door open and his legs hanging out. 

“So…,” Sam started.

“So, “Y/N confirmed.

“Are you landlocked now? Or will your fin come back if you get wet?” He shook his head at the absurdity of his question, but Y/N only laughed. 

“Now that I am bonded with a human, I have power over my form. If I choose to have my tail in water, I can, otherwise, I will be in this form.”

“What about the, um…?” Sam pointed to his own face, beside his eyes.

Y/N put her own fingers to her temples and felt her scales. “Oh, my scales.” She shrugged. “I suppose I can’t deny all of my merself. I am still a child of the sea, after all.”

Dean groaned from the back seat and Y/N leaned against the door frame to look down at him as he awoke. He jerked upright, then took in his surroundings and relaxed. “Uhhh, what happened?”

“Our bond was unbreakable and Poseidon fled back to the sea.” Y/N smiled down at him and offered her hand to help him sit up and stand out of the car. 

“So, love really does save the day?” Dean laughed at his own joke, while Sam rolled his eyes and made a noise of disapproval. 

“Really?” Sam chided. 

“Is that a popular phrase? I’m afraid that I don’t recognise it,” Y/N admitted. 

Dean laughed and pulled her into a tight hug. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, we’re going to teach you everything you need to know. I’ll even watch _Splash_ with you.”

“You love that movie,” Sam teased him.

“Shut up, Sammy. Daryl Hannah gets a pass.” 

Sam laughed at Dean’s mock surliness. “And Swayze and-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just get in the car, sasquatch; let’s get out of here.”

Y/N followed Dean around to the driver’s side of the car and slid into the middle of the front seat. At some point she knew they would have to discuss what was going to happen with them moving forward. There was plenty Dean didn’t know about merfolk and it was up to her to explain things to him, but all of that could wait. Once he got settled in behind the wheel and started the car, she put her hand on his thigh and leaned her head against his shoulder. Before they made it back into town, she was fast asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> _*brotós_ \- mortal man (plural)  
_*kyría_ \- woman
> 
> Thanks for reading! Don't be shy, let me know what you think!


End file.
